216 results for author: Colin Harris

Day 55/56 – 19.3 km (total – 1234.6 km)

It’s been an eventful last couple of days!  After Friday’s run which put us about 20 km from Truro, some friends came to visit Friday night.  John and Carolyn have known Sarah for awhile and on a whim, decided to drive up to hang out with us.  They took us out for dinner and gave us a warm hotel room for the night… so generous! It’s always interesting to be reminded of how the mental aspect of running can affect the physical body and how it works.  It was 19 km on Saturday to the cutoff for Halifax and mentally, I had checked out.  As a result, it was one of the tougher 19 km I’ve run.  The fact that rain was coming at me sideways ...

Day 54 – 44.6 km (total – 1215.3 km)

People have asked me what it’s like to run on the Trans Canada Highway.   I thought I’d give a small glimpse into what my day is like.  I’ll  apologize in advance – it’s not very exciting!  I’ll try to spice it up  next time with some costumes or police pulling me over.  But for now, this is what 5 hours of my day looks like!

Day 53 – day off (total – 1170.7 km)

When Rob came up the other day to run with me, he brought an envelope filled with letters that his grade 1-6 students had written.  I wanted to share a few and he said that was okay.  Although the letters are addressed to me and talk about the run across Canada, I have two brief thoughts to share.  First, this project would never happen without Sarah.  Having a friend who commits to spending 7 months doing what she’s doing is incredible.  This run simply wouldn’t be happening without her.  And second, it is Rob who is the true inspiration in these student’s lives.  He is the one interacting with them on a daily basis and encouraging them ...

Day 52 – 30.8 km (total – 1170.7 km)

My legs had no interest in helping me finish 6 marathons in 7 days today.  At the end of yesterday’s run, my IT Band had flared up again.  I spent last night and most of this morning rolling it out on the floor of the RV.  I feel bad for Sarah… she’s lying in bed last night reading her book and had to listen to me gasping and grunting and almost in tears from the pain.  As I started to run this afternoon, it didn’t take long to realize the IT would be the least of my issues. At the end of yesterday afternoon, we realized the RV’s brake lights and signals were no longer working (the word lemon comes to mind!).  Sarah was wondering why ...

Day 51 – 42.3 km (total – 1139.9 km)

Remember the movie Groundhog Day?  Bill Murray’s character was stuck in the same day, repeated over and over again.  I sort of wish today could be one of those days for me, as it was definitely a day to remember.  I got to run with four incredible people… and came away from the day with four new friends. At about 9:30 this morning, a car pulled over at the side of the highway and out popped these 4 individuals.  Rob teaches and is currently on March Break.  We’ve had contact and he told me he’d love to come up and run with me for a bit.  Jennifer is the mother of 3 kids that he teaches and the two have been chatting about Take Me ...

Day 49/50 – 45.1 km (total – 1097.6 km)

Yesterday’s highlight of a day off entailed transferring my laundry from the washer to the dryer and realizing I had forgotten to add detergent to both loads!  Oh well… I’m sure my running clothes are less stinky than they’ve been for the past two weeks.  We chatted with the couple who ran the laundromat and as we often to, explained what we were doing and why we were doing it.  Five minutes later, I pulled out my laptop and sat in front of it for an hour responding to emails and trying to stay on top of everything. In chatting with students at schools, we try to convey how many hours are spent in front of screens by youth their ...

Day 48 – 42.4 km (total – 1052.5 km)

I’ll admit that I’m not functioning at an alert level right now.  I’m tired and need my bed, no matter how cold it is!  And the good news is… it’s not that cold!  In fact, today was the first day that had a hint of spring in the air.  I could hear the trickle of snow melting off tree branches and the sky was blue, the sun was bright.  Not only was the sky blue, there was not a cloud in the sky this afternoon. The glare off the snow from the sun was bright, but I soaked it in.  The snow and ice are receding from the unpaved shoulder, which is the part I like to run, and there were numerous friendly “honks” today, which was ...

Day 47 – 47.5 km (total – 1010.1 km)

Although I still have 6500 odd to go, I celebrate the partial of my first 1000 kilometres today! When I first moved to Haliburton to work at YMCA Wanakita, this burly, giant guy picked me up from the bus station to welcome me to my new job at the outdoor centre.  His name was Matty and he ended up being my roommate for the next couple of seasons.  He also became a good friend (even though he’s a Habs fan!).  And he’s a good friend with Sarah as well, so we’ve had some fun times over the past decade.  He has lived up in the Yukon for the last couple of years and this morning, he sent us this email that I thought I’d share.  Thanks ...

Day 45/46 – 43.4 km (total – 962.6 km)

  Events over the past 72 hours seem a bit skewed.  3 days ago feels like 3 weeks ago.  Mmm… perhaps a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.  After missing the ferry by mere minutes, the next one was at midnight – so we were told.  In reality, it left at 5 am, so it was another night that didn’t entail a lot of sleep.  Celebrating the finish line of reaching the ferry lasted about 7 hours, most of which were spent passed out on orange and yellow chairs in the ferry’s lounge.  I think the designer had a thing for the disco era! The seas were rough in the early hours of the morning, but subsided by the time we woke up.  ...

Day 44 – 7.7 km (total – 919.2 km) NL done!

This morning I was the happiest kid in Canada.  I ran the last 7 km to the ferry and felt on top of the world.  I’m pretty sure I would have attempted my best Leo imitation on top of that ferry!  Oh… that ferry... but of course, there’s more to the story! Last night, the winds were strong.  I’m not sure how to aptly describe the wind.  Sarah nor I slept.  You know when you ride a roller coaster and aside from the speed at which you’re going, the cart you are traveling in jostles back and forth a lot?  We were in that cart last night as the wind shook us violently until the wee hours of the morning.  No biggie… I would have ...